Fabiano Micocci graduated from Roma Tre University in 2002 where he also specialised in History of the Design Process (2003). He obtained his PhD in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of Florence (2010) where he was a teaching fellow. In 2013–14 he was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University of Beirut. He teaches at the March in Architecture and Urbanism at the Akmi Metropolitan College of Athens, and at the University of Thessaly in Volos. He has participated in several international conferences and workshops as tutor and has taken part in various international architectural competitions, receiving several prizes. He is Senior Associate at Urban Transcripts and co-founder of NEAR Architecture, a design and research practice based in Athens and Rome.

Abstract

The Inclusive Urban Strategy and Action Plan is a study conducted by a multi-disciplinary international team focused on the post-conflict area of Tripoli, the second largest city of Lebanon. The project includes the neighbourhoods of Bab Al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen and the conflict zone in between where hostilities ended thanks to the implementation of a security plan in 2014. The aim of the proposal is to initiate and foster peace and reconciliation between the conflicting communities, while addressing spatial, social and economic segregations by a holistic and tactical urban approach.

The strategy results from a deep study and understanding of the actual fragile conditions in Tripoli, and derives its guidelines from the fractures and the intrinsic resources of the place. It is structured in three main layers (urban armature, functional injections and placemaking) and envisions the possibility to establish new relations and synergies inside the hugely fragmented environment.

Instead of proposing concrete solutions, the strategy aims at initially generating the necessary conditions to trigger processes of recovery and therefore development, encountering positive outcomes and opportunities as well as possible threats. Adaptability and retrofitting thus became keywords in developing a realistic strategy that can take into consideration the difficulty of programming and making decisions in the context of post-conflict reconstruction.